Experiencing the Nemesis of hubric exceptionalism‑Who are we now? ORIGIN

 

The [George W. Bush] aide, [Narcissus],  … said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/faith-certainty-and-the-presidency-of-george-w-bush.html

           For the last few years I have been trying unsuccessfully to discern some consistent, organizing theme to American foreign policy in the supposedly post Cold War Era.  A few facts that appear to be true relating to the MENA have really bothered me because of their contradictory nature.  Recently, one of the members of this Committee posted a serious question for the Committee he had picked up somewhere else on the Internet. 

           The question is as follows:

Just trying to keep my scorecard straight. Let’s see. The Americans are using a Turkish airbase to bomb ISIS and protect our allies the Kurds.

 The Turks are bombing our allies the Kurds while we are using their airbase.  The Americans are supplying human shields for terrorist in Syria who are being bombed by the Russians.

On the Iraqi side, American air power is being used to protect and support the new Iranian puppet regime in Iraq installed by the Americans after the gulf war.  The Mahdi army that we fought in Sadr City are now advanced element of the Iraqi army we are protecting.

Officers of “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism” the Iranians are standing next to Iraqi officers who are standing next to American officers all cooperating to kill ISIS soldiers who have been receiving weapons from Americans through American proxies we consider”moderate rebels”.

Meanwhile, our “enemies” the Iranians are supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen while our “allies” the people who destroyed the trade centers have involved the U.S. in yet another unauthorized war by aggressively attacking the houthis who were helping the U. S. fight Al Queda in Yemen before .

In the meanwhile “moderate rebels” are undoubtedly being furnished weapons capable of bringing down Russian war planes. So while Russia is bombing ISIS, we are encouraging our proxies to shoot down their planes.

Will someone tell me whose side we are on today?

 

          Then, one of the commenters here pointed me to a whole new viewpoint towards American foreign policy by giving me a link to the works of Andrew Horybko.  That lead introduced me to a whole group of thinkers and theses I was unaware existed and viewpoints that previously had never entered my mind. 

           What formerly seemed nonsensical, suddenly seems consistent and intentional‑The established strategy of the foreign policy of the United States is to create chaos to destabilize the world.

           I have long been aware of the neocon program, the Project for a New American Century. first publically espoused about 1997 and signed onto by Elliot Abrams, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney and others signed onto the (PNAC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century#Statement_of_Principles  I have read many of their publications and most just seemed to be Israel-Firster tripe promoting a huge increase in the size of the U.S. Military coupled with some conservative dribble about American Dominance in the Twenty-First Century.  I did not discern the project’s Statement of Principals to be a real manifesto directed at seeking total world domination by the cabal of its authors.  When I refer to the project as a cabal, I do not mean that these men and women covertly met in the think tank offices and wrote out some conspiratorial tome.  Instead, the growth of the Cabal most likely arose informally in the incestuous milieu of the elite policy mavens of Washington where the meme grew and developed at parties, receptions, and gatherings among those hungry for power and without ethics.  Some gave the project’s goal the name “New World Order.”  For lack of a better acronym for those who ascribe to the concepts of neocon colonialism, I will just lump the group who signed, ascribed to, and followed the fundamental ideas set forth in the PNAC as the “PNAC” or the “Cabal”.  Membership is confirmed by adoption of the meme, not by formal initiation.  For many in the Cabal, they may not even comprehend the reality of their joining or membership, but nevertheless, actually are members.  From my view, this group includes almost all of the establishment members of the group Colonel Lang has named the Borg, including most from the Bush-Cheney group, through Hillary, to Obama as one of its most sophisticated players.

           My new view of the PNAC as a cabal for world domination first focused when a SST commenter linked me to an article by Andrew Horybko  (http://stanjestvari.com/2014/12/05/andrew-korybko-the-color-revolution-model-an-expose-of-the-core-mechanics/ and ultimately to Andrew Horybko’s book, Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach to Regime Change. (eBook available on Amazon Kindle for cheap.)  From there, I followed-up with some works by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, The Kagans, and some discussions of the perversion Gene Sharp’s theories of “non-violent” struggle to accomplish violent subversion and some articles and lectures on www.csis.org.   (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Sharp  http://www.aeinstein.org/

           The intellectual heart of the project to the establish The New World Order and the strategy of achieving it is Brzezinski’s key idea, of a Balkanized Crescent.  This concept is built on Halford John Mackinder’s concept of the Asian Heartland as the Pivot of History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History.  The fundamental principle of Balkanizing-the-Crescent is that in a nuclear world where it is too dangerous to take direct action against Russia, Russia can be weakened by the creation of chaos in its near neighbors.  By creating chaos in its neighborhood (Russia’s “Rimland” using Mackinder’s name) in a Balkanized Crescent, Russia is forced to act to protect its interests in its Rimland and is weakened thereby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimland The necessity of Russia (né the Soviets) tamping out the nearby fires thereby weakens Russia’s power and freedom of action to the benefit of the U.S. and the global power of its Cabal leaders.  Moreover, given the centrality in the Crescent of competing proto-regional hegemons centered around Arabia and Iran, in Kissinger’s words, a pair of Sunni and Shiite Crescents, chaos in those sub-Crescents can prevent the development of either Arabia or Iran from obtaining hegemony in the region. As an added benefit, Israel is contained by being caught in the middle.

           Gene Sharp, who, after studying Gandhi, developed a series of processes and formulas for using small, well-funded groups to destabilize countries from within.  The logic of the PNAC Cabal expands this idea all across the coastlines from the Indian Ocean, across the Mediterranean and up around to the Baltic Sea; this is the Crescent to be balkanized under the Colour Revolution meme and the dream of the PNAC.

           An amalgam of the ideas presented by these thinkers seems to gel into a theory of using various types of provocateurs, special forces, spies, NGOs, community organizers, paid peasant soldiers, and a comparatively small amount of money to work towards destabilizing the Balkanized Crescent.  Andrew Horybko has given the strategy a usable meme name, Colour Revolution. Horybko makes an interesting argument that the Balkanize-the-Crescent strategy is being actively and currently pursued by the US in the present to further the goals set forth last century by the PNAC clique who still dominate the execution of American foreign policy.  See, http://csis.org/publication/russia-and-color-revolution ; https://consortiumnews.com/2015/11/17/lost-on-the-dark-side-in-syria/

           As I reviewed these disparate works they have raised a question in my mind as to whether the real actions of the United States are, in fact, a consistent application of Korybko’s explication of the Colour Revolution meme and strategy?  Is current American foreign policy stuck in the, now mythical, bi-polar Cold War Era meme of Russia [the Soviets] against the West and is America’s goal not peace, but to surround Russia [subconsciously, the old Soviet Union boogeyman] with Brzezinski’s Balkanized crescent of chaos, focused upon weakening our now dissolved adversary, the USSR and even Europe, to promote total American world domination? 

           Listen to any lecture or read the papers by the Kagans, Brzezinski or Kissinger and the old Cold War meme still resonates loudly.  Many of these incriminating materials are available on the CSIS.org web site.  If we are still captured by the Soviets v. US meme, or if the cabalists do indeed seek to obtain total world domination, then the Balkanize-the-Crescent strategy becomes clear: The apparent contradictions of supporting ISIS and Sunni militias at the same time makes sense.  Neither will be crushed, both will simultaneously be supported and subverted.  All protestations to the contrary are merely psyops.

          Using a perversion of Sharp’s insights and formulas as the tactical tool for  expression of the strategic goal of total domination, destabilize everything around Russia so Russia will act to expend resources to stabilize its immediate neighborhood and thereby become weakened by attrition.  And, just for good measure, include Europe in the destabilization plan to keep the Europeans subservient and in tow by flooding it with refugees and provoking the skinheads with targets for their xenophobic rage. 

           If this Balkanize-the-Crescent strategy is the real strategy, it has been profoundly successful.  The Crescent around Asia’s Rimland has been destabilized through a masterful series of Colour Revolutions and supported insurgencies going back to the Carter Administration’s first support to the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan when Brzezinski enticed the Soviet Union into a fatal quagmire.  The strategy has continued up until the present as we send arms to the “moderate” jihadists in Syria, all the while supporting the Iraqi Army and the Shia militias trying to fight the brothers of the “moderate’ jihadists in Syria and helping KSA to bomb Shia Houthis in Yemen. 

           Application of this principal means that we truly have no allies and no friends because we subvert them all. 

           The whole process in the MENA can be visualized as a stoking and damping of three fires, Jewish, Sunni, and Shia; making sure all burn hot, but none burns brighter than the others, while making sure that the three consume all of the fuel, so none becomes overly fierce so as to escape confinement.  Russia is intended to suffer burns from all three.

           Like plying an alcoholic with booze, we have paid billions into Israel to enable the Zionists to torture and oppress the Palestinians and punish Lebanon in order to guarantee an abiding cancer of Muslim anger against the Jews that spreads it festering seed throughout all of MENA.  We have destabilized Israel’s enemy Iraq and have armed its Shia masses who have ethnically cleansed much of Iraq, concentrating the Sunni in fanatical hell holes.  We have covertly encouraged ISIS while arming JAL so together, they can destabilize Syria and Iraq.  We have armed Turkey and KSA to entice each of them to founder into the Cauldrons of Syria and Yemen and to breed the seeds of their own civil wars.  At the same time, we have created an epidemic of opium and a tsunami of migrants and refugees from Syria and Afghanistan into Europe that will most certainly destabilize that entire continent for decades.  Iran is countered by a Sunni stronghold that will not go away and that will challenge it for decades even if it is forced into an underground guerilla movement.  We have promoted the KSA while all the time knowing it was funding and growing the Wahhabi faith and poisoning a generation all over Asia and Africa with the virus of Salafist Jihadism and now funding the extension of settlements in the West Bank.  We have supported fascists in Ukraine to defeat a democratically elected government friendly to Russia and left Ukraine in turmoil and dissent.  Russia has willingly allowed itself to be sucked into lengthening wars of attrition in Syria and Ukraine that will be followed by a longer, tumultuous, costly attempt at a post-war stabilization process that can never occur because all of those who could create a follow-up civil society are either dead or gone.  Our successfully “Balkanized Crescent” now extends from Sweden to Yemen and everything in between from the Sub Saharan Africa up through Italy, Greece, Hungary, Romania, and the steppes of Ukraine to the Arctic Ocean.

           In all, the condition on the ground today supports a Grade of A-Plus for the strategists and tacticians of the Cabal executing the Colour Revolution process.  The future for years is simply chaos within the West Asian Rimland far into the future.  All of this gained for a mere $75.00 dollar a week paycheck for a few thousand peasant fighters with no employee benefits and a hugely profitable boondoggle for the domestic defense industry supplying the replacement troops, hardware, and materiel.  What a deal!

          If the quest of the Cabal is continuation of the Cold War for world domination by proxy and not peace, then the facts listed in the scorecard question above all make sense.  The U.S. supports all sides in the MENA conflict including even our Al Qaeda frenemies wherever they may be used be to maximize the operation of chaos.  The strategy is arms for all as long as “they” are over-there and have sufficient willingness and talent to contribute to chaos sufficient to support the investment. 

          Even a few hits “over here” or in Paris are good because they reinforce the deception of the American People and increase support for the Cabal’s quest for world domination and increasing authoritarian control at home.  Fear at home is good for the Cabal’s business of chaos for profit.  An examination of the countries destabilized this century confirms the majesty, effectiveness, and extent of the operation.

          We should have considered ourselves duly warned of the dreams dreamt by Jeb and Dick. They were proclaimed widely and openly as the destiny of American exceptionalism.  Who could have imagined that in just eighteen years from the 1997 proclamation of the Project for a New American Century its program would have been so effective that all of Europe, western Asia, and North Africa would be so completely destabilized and vulnerable to the expanding chaos in a vast and growing Balkanized Crescent now sucking in Russia with a Siren’s song of reviving dreams of empire.

          The problem is we have forgotten the progression of the classic Greek myth moves from destiny, through hubris, and, finally, to Nemesis and destruction.  As President Bush’s aid, Narcissus, bragged, “[W]e'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."  We are studying, but we will all pay the price as trillions of dollars’ worth of wealth is destroyed, millions are displaced, and more millions die—all to assuage some ancient fear of the mythical big-bad wolf prowling in the forests north of the Caucuses and the desire for world domination of a few evil people.  We may slay the wolf, but most likely, we will be ruined first and the whole world may burn because of our quest.

           One of the most helpful aspects of participating in this Committee of Correspondence is that it operates as a peer review of its participant’s positions and wacky ideas.  This screed is written by a dilatant and as an armchair-general.  I am sure I have missed a lot and failed to take many important facts and theories into consideration.  As an American I surely hope I am in error here and that my observations are incorrect in some way.  Else, I and the rest of the United States citizenry must take responsibility for being the blind authors of a vast continent of human suffering.  If the deed has been done, PNAC Cabal intentionally created chaos in our name and on our dime and, perhaps with our consent.

         Most here understand much more than I.  Please convince me I am in error. 

Comments

[Jack]

Origin

Great effort in providing a "Grand Unification Theory" of US foreign policy strategy. I submit that the US has had no discernable strategy post-Cold War. It could be considered that we did not have much of strategy other than the great rivalry once the Cold War began in great ernest.

I think what we have seen since the Carter presidency is more hubris and interventions both covert and overt simply because that's what the political and governmental apparatus does. There's an inertia where the ball in motion keeps going.

I also submit that we should examine the role or lack thereof of the majority of our people to understand why our actions have devolved to incoherence. Maybe the answer lies in the changing character of the American people as my Dad believes. In his opinion from his generation (born early 30s) on the majority have become more self-centered and feel more entitled and demand instant gratification. This has led to belief in magical theories of free lunches with no consequence. One of the outcomes is our evolution to hyper partisan politics largely driven by social and cultural wars on both the right and left. This identity politics is the lens from which the world is viewed. I also submit that these factors lead to great spoils from political influence. So elites gain from using the coercive power of government to further entrench their power and wealth. Consequently the scale and scope of government grows. The revolving door of political and financial elites results in groupthink and short termism. That's probably why there is no overarching strategy that lasts over a long period and we get a series of disconnected tactics. IMO our path cannot change until there is a significant systemic shock that alters perception and psychology of the middle and working classes.

[J Villain]

Hanlon's razor:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

[MEP]

DeWitt
I meant to thank you for the info on Clarridge. Pardon the mental distraction on my part. It would be interesting to do a bit more digging to discover if any other Apostles of the PNAC are FP advisors and such...........and for who.
Origin...........very interesting article. Glad to find out that I am not alone in the .."is it only me" syndrome.

[turcopolier]

MEP

I thought Dewey Clarridge was dead. pl

[turcopolier]

J Vilain

"Hanlon? pl

[MEP]

What may have miss lead us was the stench. A live and kicking I fear. The Hand thing blew me away....and as a DoD contractor type. Already in my "Ya can't make this Sh&t Up! File. Wonders never cease.

[William R. Cumming]

See also C. Vann Woodward's 1955 POWER ELITE!

[William R. Cumming]

NO the Chinese will exploit US natural resources including US adopted Chinese girls all grown up and running Wall Street. Perfectly marriageable for all those available Chinese men without women.

[William R. Cumming]

The real class struggle in American history is over selection of FSOs in the State Department.

[Origin]

To Bill H on South America. While it may seem increasingly irrelevant, that appearance probably means it is effectively under control through total Borg domination of its banking system. Those who have not cooperated such as Venezuela have been effectively punished.

Ghost ship posited that there is an alternative explanation, “ no conspiracy, just a cock-up on a truly monumental/global scale. A conspiracy would require too many people with disparate positions but common objectives to come together to make it work and could not be kept secret.” A. Pols alluded to a “fiendish plot…But most of the time I think the policies of both subverting and supporting various actors, to all work at cross purposes, are a reflection of the seriously schizoid character of our national culture.” Others have also questioned my designation of the circumstances as a conspiracy theory and blamed the situation on a myriad of causes such as a simple desire for power, hubris, arrogance, ignorance, incompetence, delusion, infantilism, and vanity among the Washington Borg.

I have never been much of a conspiracy theorist because the idea of a conspiracy is hard to fit into a context of complex facts. However, in the context of the Cabal as a name for the group who have been the deciders for so many years, in number, they are actually very few, probably less than twenty really key individuals the idea probably fits. These key deciders are surrounded by a circle of followers who follow-up to implement the broader policies. The short list of deciders includes, the Presidents, National Security Advisors, Secretaries of State, and Presidential Chiefs of Staff. These are counselled by a few Deciders-Emirates, first among them are probably Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Like in the formation of our country that was mostly the work of the Charlottesville, Va. and Quincy, Ma. neighborhood associations, the group in control is mostly a self-aggrandizing and self-deceiving group of friends. If one studies the backgrounds and contacts of these people, it is quite clear that they have long, intertwined histories and resumes in and out of government. Are they a conspiracy? Perhaps yes or no depending on one’s view. However, an examination of their works, speeches, and activities shows a great commonality of belief and action that has probably coalesced from their close social interactions. The Cabal arises at least subconsciously as the members adopt the attitudes of their peers mostly—a real sort of group-think and as they fondly follow their Emeriti. It is as if the group has found such success in the strategy of destabilization that it has become habitual. They have fully failed to see that when dosed too many times, the side-effects of destabilization may be fatal. This Kissinger video is a prime example of how Uncle Henry influences thinking. It is long, but worth an hour’s entertainment to hear it through. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VMmnWuCneg&feature=player_embedded

Euclid Creed and WF questioned whether the planting of missiles in former Warsaw Pact countries is a destabilization effort. The actions probably are. If the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (“MAD”) is considered to be a valuable protector against nuclear war, then the placing of the missile defense missiles in the area is completely destabilizing because Russia clearly views it as an action that deters Russia first strike MAD capacity to its detriment. Hence, the rumors of Russian’s new nuclear torpedo and another round of expensive defense upgrades by Russia. Russia’s economy is much, much smaller than the US’s. So like Reagan’s Star Wars, the new arms race to re-establish a credible MAD deterrent cannot do anything except to weaken Russian.

WRC raised the question as to whether there is a longer range goal of the balkanization of Russia itself. A fair observer will probably come to that conclusion. There is a substantial body of information suggesting that the Balkan wars were classic Colour Revolutions targeted at destabilizing Russia by destabilizing its ally, Serbia. The links to Andrew Horybko’s works in my piece discuss the Balkan wars in some detail. Further information is easily found on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars There is strong evidence that the war was started as a destabilization effort against Serbia that was expanded to a NATO military action to become, using Andrew Horybko’s term, a Hybrid War. The ultimate consequence was successfully to lessen Russian influence in the Balkans. As for the Balkanization of Russia itself, already largely successful, but still in process. After all, the USSR was Balkanized. Now, the luring of Russia into Serbia, is probably one of the intended consequences of the Chaos tactics in the MENA. We will soon see whether Russia’s entry into the Syrian theater weakens or strengthens it.

Tim and several others have raised questions about Israel in all of this, some suggesting that since so many of the deciders are Israel-Firsters the battles in the Middle East are at Israel’s behest. I used to think that, but do not any more. It seems to me that Israel is just another tool to be used to further the ultimate world order of total domination. My analogy of the three fires seems best to describe the issue. While we have provided billions for Israel, I think our money has mostly destabilized Israel by promoting its drift toward a Jewish Likud state and Apartheid. In my view, this tack taken by the Likud will untimately prove suicidal for the State of Israel. Ultimately, the Karma of its founding based upon a terrorist ethnic cleansing and its continued creation of a prison farm for the Palestinians will ultimately prove fatal. If, for example Israel and the KSA join together too effectively so as to threaten real Hegemony in the Levant, I think the Cabal will follow Kissinger’s theorem of not letting any state, even Israel, get too uppity. My guess is that the greater group of deciders already know Israel has no loyalty to the U.S., so why give them any special pass if they get too big for their britches. Of course the form of destabilization of Israel will be a sophisticated operation such as to swamp them with so much money and arms that they destroy themselves in short order by blow-back.

I like Herodotus’s characterization the PNAC approach as the "Who's On First" strategy. I think to a large extent it is that simple. Compare it to taking Ibuprofen for a herniated disk in the back. The Ibuprofen will relieve the pain and allow the sufferer to continue her activities, but will not cure anything. Over the last few decades, the Cabal has learned that the best, simple “Who’s On First” quick treatment of pesky opponents is simply to use a dose of destabilization. It usually works, but leaves that crumbling disk problem worsening. Now, it seems that so many doses of destabilization treatment have been administered that the US is beginning to suffer overdose side-effects and general declining health caused by the crumbling disk.

In all, it is important that we Americans recognize that the war in Syria and Iraq are essentially destabilization operations. The US has no intention to and will not crush ISIS. The U.S. will not crush Iran or the Shias in Syria or join with Russian to form any sort of stasis in the region. The U.S. will continue to pay and play Israel to insure there is adequate fuel to inspire continued Chaos and to counterbalance Iran and KSA. Instead, the U.S. will simply continue to stoke and damp the fires to keep them burning brightly so that the entire Levant remains emasculated for generations to come. This is the reality-peace and stability is not a goal sought.

If it is really established and becomes a general meme that, indeed, the goal of U.S. foreign policy is simply to destabilize the world, there remain independent actors who are affected, particularly in Europe. It is my view that the Europe has been played by the Balkanize-the-Crescent as much as anybody and is now in the throes of a struggle for its cultural identity along with Russia.

Now, France is proposing a grand coalition with Russia. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-france-seeks-a-grand-coalition-obama-is-wary-of-allying-with-russia/2015/11/18/c2f98030-8e1d-11e5-baf4-bdf37355da0c_story.html It could happen that Europe and Russia might decide together that a Europe-Russia alliance might be more beneficial to both than the U.S. controlled Atlantic Alliance that seems to have no interest in preserving overall peace on the Eurasian Continent as its goal, but instead seeks total US domination. Perhaps, the support and subversion of all sides in Syria is that one too many dose of destabilization strategy that results in a fundamental realignment of the world players away from the Atlantic Alliance.

It is a dangerous game and the gambit could collapse in a moment with a realignment of the European and Russian players-- or it could simply blow up in a nuclear exchange. The Sunnis and Israel have bombs and the Shia might also.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Clarridge

He is alive. “In 2015, Clarridge was a top adviser to the Ben Carson presidential campaign on terrorism and national security.” Conspiracy is an old farts’ term. Today it is called networking. Better description is racketeering with no fear of jail time.

[Thomas]

Origin,

"Are they a conspiracy?"

No, by definition "a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful." They are very public with what they are doing. A place to look at for the start of this is the University of Chicago's Great Books program. Overall it is a metamorphosis of the Bolshevik mask, power for the sake of power but make it sound good for the "masses".

Also, Benjamin Netanyahu is a fully made member of the Cabal so I would argue Israel is not a play piece for this Global Game, but a prime objective in keeping the diaspora community from questioning the rationale of what is going on(communal security needs worldwide) and for the Cabal's psyche in believing they are performing an existential task for humanity. The latter being important for looking in the mirror and never having to face the question of "am I Man or Monster?".

[walrus]

I think Origin has encapsulated what is going on rather well. I don't think one needs to call it a "conspiracy" rather call it the mindset of a ruling class. I am reminded of the Nineteenth Century British ruling class and its desire to civilise the rest of the planet. This was code for a mercantilist colonial policy that only began to unravel during WWII and took another twenty years or so to disintegrate. There are many books detailing what it felt like to be British as their empire fell apart that I have not read, but perhaps the American ruling class did….

So what should have happened at the end of the Cold War? Lets explore that a little. I agree that we would still need armed forces - "Rough men" who let us sleep safely at night, but the sheer weight of the American defence budget and its social impact should have been lessened and the money either returned to the taxpayer or expended on worthwhile social projects, there are such things. We could then have pursued a foreign policy designed to strengthen the worlds political infrastructure, perhaps aspiring to be first among equals, perhaps thinking about planetary good.

But what did we do? We thought about what it might be like living in a world where we were NOT the dominant actor and we didn't like that idea very much at all. We thought about a world where the purchasing power of Chinese and Indian middle classes would dwarf Americas. We thought about increasing competition for scarce resources - all that "limits to growth" stuff. We decided that we liked the status quo just fine. No conspiracy theory is necessary, taking the line of least resistance works just as well.

Out of that thread we wove exactly the same cloth as the British Empire - an indispensable, exceptional, nation whose God given mission is to Freedomize (™) the planet - a modern White Mans Burden, you can hear it echo in almost every utterance from D.C., think tanks and all. That is why no competing foreign policy narratives can gain traction, the proposers - all of us have "gone native" to use the perforative british empire epithet. That is why we are ignored, scorned derided and shunned. We have the temerity to suggest that perhaps the citizens of lesser countries should perhaps be consulted about their wishes before we act, what a funny notion!

Hence we must put Russia and China in their place. Hence we must destabilise anyone who is not suitably obedient to our wishes. That is the source of the craven cowardice of Europe, Britain, Australia, Canada, ,Japan and a host of other countries. When Washington says "Jump" we ask how high? If we do not pay due respect to Americas ruling class and its notions then to borrow a Mafia term "bad things can happen". The power inside that velvet glove is not just military, ask the South Americans. Watch your economy crumble if you don't comply. Australia copped a bit of that too in the 1990s under a socialist Government that was less than compliant with some of Washingtons requests.

What now needs to be understood are the dynamics of Americas ruling elite,, it's unspoken rules and potential behaviour.

[Mongoose]

A commentary on history/catastrophe/progress via the literary critic Walter Benjamin. Citing it seems appropriate given the topic of this thread. From "Illuminations"--'These on the Philosophy of History'

My wing is ready for flight,
I would like to turn back.If I stayed timeless time,
I would have little luck.


Mein Flügel ist zum Schwung bereit,
ich kehrte gern zurück,
denn blieb ich auch lebendige Zeit,
ich hätte wenig Glück.

Gerherd Scholem,
‘Gruss vom Angelus’

A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Nah, the Storm is the Fall of Man.

Progress is what has been achieved in spite of the Fall of Man by a few visionaries and geniuses - like Pasteur, or Salk, or Watt, or Newton or Machiavelli, or Abol Ala Al Ma'ari.

[Ex-PFC Chuck]

Peter Butt had best watch his back.

[Ex-PFC Chuck]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

[Origin]

Perhaps if everyone comes from the same schools, goes to the same parties, and reads the same junk, then the resultant errant thoughts could easily be the result of combined stupidity and cultural isolation. So, if everyone suffers from the same group-think and fosters the same policies, is it any less a Cabal if done by the group's actions than if they got into a room and planned out doing bad? Not much difference, the resulting mess can be the same.

BTW, I did not publish your earlier post because I did not understand it.

[Origin]

The Borg will have nothing of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=z8VffVs3bAg http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/19/us/elections/presidential-candidates-on-syria-no-fly-zone.html?_r=0

[MEP]

In the film of Hand taken by the Aussie 60 Minutes crew, he was wearing a neck brace. I have to wonder if the problem is from looking over his shoulder for decades. He might think of getting rearview mirrors mounted on his head because there have to be a few people with tightened sphincters now that he has been located and exposed. I wonder how long it's been since he and Dewey shared a few drinks. I don't think everything happening these days is the result of a grand conspiracy. However, the fact that so many of the guys like Hand and Dewey keep popping up in positions of influence is hard to ignore. Most of those guys knew each other "back when". Secord, Abrahms...etc....they were all buds or at least had operated with each other. It's like the old Saturday Matinee serials........the bad guys just keep showing back up......doing bad things. The stench I used in referring to Dewey was a metaphor not an assessment of his hygiene. Seems that where ever he goes or has been.......bodies seem to stack up. Just my two cents. Some may think all of this is "Off topic" but it's damned hard to give all of these guys the benefit of doubt...as in Luck or change of fortune. It would seem that capitol crimes such as lying to Congressional investigations can pay off handsomely. I wonder if they all get together and celebrate Ted's Birthday? I would like to be wrong in thinking these guys are still someone's "go to" for dirty work. Like hiring Trade Journeymen "Off the bench". Need a hole dug....some bricks laid?

[Mongoose]

I was aiming more at the idea of "messianic catastrophe" as ironic price paid for "progress."

[Fred]

Origin,

I disagree with a few points you are trying to make. Brzezinski’s key idea of a “Balkanized Crescent” is simply a modernized concept of what had previously happened in a different time to a different group of peoples centuries ago. The “cabal” as you named them has taken advantage of circumstances; they did not create all of the circumstances by a well thought out policy. After the destruction of Sadaam’s Iraq and the one functional national institution that could have stabilized the country - the army - that was when chaos, if not already started, accelerated. This was done not for destabilization within the concept of Brzezinski's idea but was done because of a monumental misunderstanding of humanity and of the nature of peoples now living within the region.

“neocon colonialism” Again I disagree. The only places being colonized are Westernized nations. From Sweden to South Dakota there are no Europeans or Americans leaving home in numbers and arriving in the Middle East to make a future. It is the reverse that is occurring. That happened due to immigration. For most of the previous 1,000 years Sweden had been almost entirely Christian. Now twenty percent are Muslim and are first or second generation immigrants. Colonists, to use your chose word.

What is happening in the "Balkanized Crescent" is not due to this "strategy" of the borg but is an extension of one of the many possible post Iraq War outcomes due to the continued enactment of neocon policies by these incompetents in office. A rational policy is precisely what we saw the Syrian Arab Republic implement from at least 2004 to now.

Even more rational are the actions of the Russian Federation and Iran. The former USSR - at least the Russian Federation - was destabilized for only a short period by the ideas of the borg and the actions of those who looted a generation's material wealth. Russia now is certainly not the former USSR nor is she enslaved to that image of herself. What is resurgent there are the Westernized elements of Russian society that had been suppressed or held in check by the ideology of the communists and later those of the borg.

At home it is the principles of American civilization that are under attack. For example just look at the presumption of innocence and the temper and conduct of college administrations relating to “sexual assault on campus”. UVA as described by Rolling Stone being a prime example. Then there is the concept of a free speech and of a free press. From the campuses of Dartmouth to University of Missouri: It is the fomenting of an American Color Revolution, brought to you by Black Lives Matter and that is only one part of the rainbow of such NGOs on campus. What the borg are trying to do with them is provoke a 1950-1960's style response (to domestic provocations) to discredit government - and society - in general. What they fear is a true resurgence of traditional western values within the US and other Western (European) nations.
http://tinyurl.com/pssypjr
http://tinyurl.com/mao-mao-now

[annamaria]

"...the seriously schizoid character of our national culture."
Most likely, just the random spikes during interaction of competing actors longing for money and power. Though the abundance of self-defeating actions is astonishing; makes one thinking of a host led to demise by a parasite. Blackmail, self-serving security apparatus, war-profiteering, and, most of all, the corruption due to unaccountability have been ruining this country. A lack of dignity among those in the top echelon is quite disturbing.
http://americanfreepress.net/PDF/Final_Judgment.pdf

[VietnamVet]

Fred and Origin,

The number of billionaires is limited.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/there-are-now-2089-billionaires-in-the-world-this-is-who-they-are-where-they-live-and-how-they-made-10026128.html

They and their staffs’ network. There are political, cultural and religious divisions but they are never reported. Common to all is greed. They steal each other’s wealth and resources and all exploit the lower classes. Immediate gratification is the norm. They’ve seized power. Politicians are their paid followers.

The contradictions are becoming evident as World War III escalates. Most can be explained by the wealthy’s use of mercenaries and true believers to fight their wars for profit. The thing is everything is getting out of hand. Thus, the White House’s dogged determination to take down Assad at the same time as the French ally with Russia and the Eurozone collapses from Austerity and millions of refugees

[YT]

Mr. Cumming,

I beg to differ...

After decades of growing up in your United States, those Chink wenches will see & think themselves as "Americans" & [sadly] end up belittling those Chink men from the Mainland...

I seriously doubt they will marry someone who speaks English with a "sing-song" accent.